Learning Trading Stocks 101

[JamesStr]

Hello, this is my journal, I'll write down my journey as I pursuit the mastering of trading :smart:

I'm a nooby (as 05/03/2018) but I'm eager to take the time to go through the learning curve.
Being rational and patient it's a question of practice and time before becoming profitable.

It's not the first time I try to master a discipline from zero.
So I already have some knowledge about "how to learn" - "being aware of his own ego" - "being aware of his innergame (his emotions)" etc

First of all, everything is a work in progress, I'll change, tweaks my system or trading style, time passing.

All advises, reviews are more than welcome !

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My goal for the next 6 months :

- breakevent with regularity
- making +2.5% of profit per week.
- making the idea of making trading a part-time revenue closer (long term goal)

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My style of trading :

- swing trade
- short term holding (from 2 days to one week)
- technical analysis (have to learn more about FA before integrating it into my trading but it doesn't really appeal me)
- reversal, sometimes retracement - breakout seems to be tricky for my current level

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My system (all conditions have to occur) :

Deciding potential stocks :

- touching/breaking Bollinger waves
- oversold/undersold conditions
- having a maximum potential gain of +10%

Point of entry :

- reversal candles AND confirmation
- touching trends resistance/supports
- price crossing 8EMA (optional - depending if I judge I need more safety or not)

Point of Exit :

This is where I'm the worst at (you'll see in my charts)
- Price touching opposite Bollinger waves
- First apparition of red candles (without confirmation)

Money Management :

- Investing in 4 to 6 different stocks
- Going half size position - full when position confirmed
- If near a strong resistance/support line - I half sized the position
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So my tools are :
- Stoichastics RSI
- Bollinger waves
- 8EMA
- candlesticks
- sometimes 20/50SMA for supports/resistance or additional informations

Why ?
I don't really like having a lot of lag in my instruments, I tried some others things (MACD - Balance of power etc) but I seem that I prefer these.

Again, it's a work in progress so all advices are more than welcome !!!


ps : I'm not a native english speaker so expect typo and weird formulations.

 

[JamesStr]

So this is my third week in trading.
I got a lucky win during the first week (snapchat +7%) - my others stocks was meh but still winning (+0.5% to 1%)
I've lost everything during the second week.
I didn't draw my resistance/supports line well + irrational decision (run after my losses - greed)
Lessons learned.

My third weeks was... a rollercoaster.
I was all green - but on friday everything went up (I was shorting on all my positions)
More fear than harm, I'm literraly back at my inital position lol

Still... I can't really point out why this fail at friday and if could I manage to see that coming (if even it's possible).

If you have some leads to help me

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Here's the stocks :

BLMN
https://www.tradingview.com/x/c68LJykz/

So here's the recurrent pattern of all my stocks...
As my system mentions (see first post), I noticed this stock when the price breaks out from the Bollinger during oversold condition (23/02).

I've waited the confirmation of the red hammer and enter short position on 27/02.
Everything went fine... until friday.

It indeed touch the support at 22.50 but because there was no sign of stagnation or others (or I don't know if there's tools that can help me to predict that) I didn't sell immediately.
I was like maybe this is not a big deal and price will still dropping tomorrow.

The price open the day after at 23.40... and touch my stop loss during the day (23.50).

So what should I've done ?

=> having some indicators that I didn't know then to alert me that there's a big chance of reversal when the price touched the support line ? (is there even such indicators ?)

=> Quitting the position immediatly the 01/03 ? If so why ?

=> Staying in this position ? Again how can I be sure that the price will drop soon and not going up touching the Bollinger waves again :whistling ?

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My others stock looks exactly the same - following the same pattern.
Good at first and friday, price went up hard.

CF :
https://www.tradingview.com/x/pnPfDPbC/
(I went short the 28/02 so no profit at all)

YNDX :
https://www.tradingview.com/x/JGwRkQDj/
This one didnt even got a bullish candle the 01/03...

MTCH :
https://www.tradingview.com/x/cFfejqFN/

NVDA :
https://www.tradingview.com/x/WVEgubLC/

By the way - MTCH and YNDX is touching the 20SMA - CF had touch it before going up but BLMN is pretty far from it.


I'm pretty confused. I don't know what should've I done during the last days in this situation.
Can someone enlight me ?

 

[mpups]

If you want to start with trading TA only - keep it simpler - you have over complicated it for yourself

Remove these things from the chart: Stoichastics RSI, Bollinger waves, EMA..

Use only candlesticks or bars...

take it from there

 

[Brumby]

So what should I've done ?

You should have back tested your trading strategy using your bunch of indicators. If you were satisfied with the results, then you should have forward tested them before going live. At least you would have some idea of what you were getting into. Based on the content of your postings, it doesn't look like you have a clue of what was coming your way once you went live.

=> having some indicators that I didn't know then to alert me that there's a big chance of reversal when the price touched the support line ? (is there even such indicators ?)

It looks like you had internalised a ton of cow droppings on the use of technical indicators either through the internet or from youtube videos. Technical indicators are not magic bullets - period. It also doesn't mean the more you have the better your trade results. Avoid collinearity. If you have to use them at least try to educate yourself on their respective strengths and weaknesses.

=> Quitting the position immediatly the 01/03 ? If so why ?

Is this in your trade plan?

=> Staying in this position ? Again how can I be sure that the price will drop soon and not going up touching the Bollinger waves again :whistling ?

If certainty is important to you, get another hobby and quit trading immediately. Uncertainty is the hall mark of trading.

 

[Quantt]

My goal for the next 6 months :
- making +2.5% of profit per week.

Hello and let me say first, I do admire your openness and willing to learn!

The others already gave you great advises, but let me repeat: stop trading immediately and go back to the drawing board, and back test your strategy for at least 1 market cycle to see if it does actually work...

Also one more warning: constantly making 2.5% a week is not mathematically possible - there is no person or company in the whole history of trading or investing that is making this kind of returns...